Archives: jack

To work on a Saturday again… Would normally be working next Saturday, but there’s a train strike then, so I would not make it – so swapped shifts.
Jack was not for settling to sleep last night. It was all a bit hectic. Eve & Jude had their bath while Jack was still out playing at Jessie’s house (after a bit of initial resistance Jack Hamish & Jessie seem to have settled to playing well – there was a bit of unevenness in the dynamic for a bit there, but it seems to have worked out). I went to get Jack, & it was deemed a bit late for a bath, so he was straight to bed, which was probably a mistake as although he was jolly tired he was not keen to settle down. I read to him for a bit in which time a very flakey Eve succumbed to sleep. Jack was in the mood for more. Tried to put the sleeping Jude into his cot & only succeeded in waking him, much to Louise’s annoyance. So we had Jude & Jack awake, & Louise needed to be getting on. As we were both flakey we were in poor decision making mode. Jack was grabbing books to look at rather than sitting in bed. If he was I could have coaxed him to sleep. Still, rather than risk waking Eve with loud Jude Louise took him out of the room. As Jack was refusing to settle I went as well, with the advice that we had things to be a doing & to go to sleep when he had finished with the books. I thought he would soon come downstairs again… He didn’t – he actually settled down & went to sleep! Now this may seem foolish of us, but that was the 1st time the he went to sleep on his own – with no one else there to guide him to slumber… I was annoyed that he wouldn’t settle down, but so immeasurably pleased that he managed to do that on his own.

I seem to have written very little about Jack’s party…. perhaps because it was all rather a blur. I think that the meal must have started a little late as it was all over quite quickly in the end. Suddenly there are a lot of parents & we have to cut the cake & slice it up for putting in the party bags. Louise said that was the time that she nearly panicked as it all seemed a bit of a ‘How the hell do we do this?’ moment. We did though… & the children left. Louise’s mum & Eve got a lift home with Jill leaving just Louise, Jack, Jude & myself. Found various bits that got left behind (but you wonder how regularly clear the ball pool of old socks – a few were lost that day).
Eve has been reported as having had a growing spurt recently. A few people have commented that she’s grown, & Louise has noticed some of her clothes do not quite fit as well as they should. It’s hard to notice such things when she changes so little, really.
Jude has burbling yesterday (Jack said he’s nearly talking) – bya bya bya bna bya bya

Jack is 5 now. It’s kinda strange to think of that – 5 years. Louise was saying that she finds it odd. She does not miss not having worked the past 5 years & I was a little (…brain not working well enough to get the right word…) that she felt that way – I meant – who would really miss work? I know I would not. She also does not have time to miss work – 3 kids! I mean! Mind you – Eve stayed at college playgroup on her own last Friday, & she did the same on Tuesday! Cor! Previously she would find ways of getting out being left alone. Louise would say “I’ll just go and get some shopping while you’re at college today” & Eve would mull this over, think it though, & say, “Better go with you.” as if she were needed to ensure that Louise didn’t get lost.
I would rather wish this cough would go away. Jude seems to have the same one, & it seems to have lingered for far too long. I mention it now as I’m to a stage where my limbs feel heavy & I cannot walk at my normal pace without getting short of breath. Resigned to disliking being ill.

Jack’s party. There were 21 kids in attendance in the end! Blimey! It’s a good venue for kid’s parties, & the numbers did not fill the place. They had a good old time in the indoor adventure playground/ball pool thing, but we only just felt that we were in control. Fortunately there were a good mix of boys & girls, & although there were boy & girl groups, there was also a large overlap between group play & no boy girl acrimony. Jack chose the people who came, & all got along well. Nice bunch of hyper kids. We felt a little short on the adult contingent at some points, but then – it’s a kid’s party.

Jack’s birthday tomorrow. I have the day off as well – yeay! Did a stomp around town yesterday & was quite put out at how abysmal the toy selection is in the centre of town, until I remembered the toy shop (duuuuh) – which is only a little way off centre. Got him a few things & got told off by Louise for it later, as that was not really the plan… Still, could you resist? I didn’t spend too much honest!
It’ll all work out though.
Went looking on the Internet for a buggy board last night. I can find them OK, but can I understand them OK? It seems you have to know how they might attach to your pushchair before you can order, & as there’s scant information about that, it’s somewhat difficult know what your supposed to be getting & whether it will work with your pushchair. We feel do need one although we know it will cause arguments as Jack & Eve battle for it. Eve, on the whole is much more willing to walk than Jack ever was, but even she gets tired. Jack still angles for getting a ‘pick up’, whereas Eve would rather be put down. Hmm – that may be indicative of their characters though – Jack is very tactile, whereas Eve is only tactile on her terms.
Odd thing last night – went to bed & only woke up when my alarm went off – I was not disturbed in the night… weird.

A couple of days to go until Jack’s birthday!
Have we got him anything? …Uh, not really. We have organised a party for him this year though – at ‘Pockets’ which is a snooker hall… but we’re going to be playing in the kiddies indoor climbing frame ball park thing, & then a little party is put on. It looks quite like there are going to be 20 kids in attendance (including Jack & Eve). Blimey!
Preparations still to be done!
Washed Jude’s hair in the bath the other day & it’s made it look fluffier, & in doing so made his hair look longer. His hair seems lighter (more blond) than Jack & Eve’s did, but I think it still could go red, as Jack’s did. He’s currently waking at 10:55 on a regular basis. It’s kinda good for ensuring if we’re not in we’re goinmg to bed, yourngoing to bed, but it seems a bit too habitual at the moment. He won’t be comforted by me & yells & coughs when I try (looking around all the time for Louise). It would be better if he were more satisfied, but he’s also getting in the habit of coughing & yelling & then Louise arrives, & he can calm down… So I’m rejected as comfort giver (not that I can realistically do ‘comfort’).

Type anything to start typing… Having trouble thinking this morning. Jude & Eve were awake an hour before I’m due to get up. Eve wasn’t making a fuss or anything, & Jude wasn’t being that loud, but they were awake at the perfect time to throw my sleeping pattern. I think I’d rather have my eyes closed this morning; mitigating circumstances are: I can’t think.
Eve was on the ‘Nyeurks” again yesterday. Not full on, but being a bit of a pain. One day off, one day on? Louise & Eve may be going to college today – there apparently being a spare place at the play group there. Interestingly, it seems that the college has been making it difficult for the playgroup – rising rents, poor facilities… Jack’s school has had a new porta-cabin installed & it looks as though they are going to move to that (they have close links with the school anyway as the playgroup to nursery to reception class thing has a consistency of the people involved. Really, this can only be a good thing for Eve as she will be going to that school. It’s a shame the college seems to have taken, if not a negative attitude toward the playgroup, certainly a uncaring one. One of the reasons it was initially set up there, I believe, was so that those taking classes there could have some form of facility of their young ones…
Shortsightedness & ‘market forces’ win out again. <sigh>

Jack was keen to go to the fair, so I took them. Louise had to go home with Jude as the pushchair would not have coped. Into the mud we ventured.
“Uh-uh mud
Thick oozy mud
We can’t go under it,
We can’t go over it
Oh no, we’ll have to go through it”
I still carried Eve. We made it through squelching & squertching as well as sloshing through, I hesitate to demean with what might seem an inadequate description: puddles. They enjoyed themselves they went round & round & up & down – they wanted more. We ventured further to a stall. Oddly there seemed few stalls with less people willing to wade. With limited funds we managed to get a Combine Harvester & farm set for Jack & Eve to play with. Oh, & a couple of beach balls on a string & stick – masquerading as balloons (cheap & cheerful). Unfortunately this left only enough for one more ‘ride’. Jack went into ‘the house of fun’. Enjoyed himself a good while with Eve & I looking on. We had to go in the end though. Take our muddy feet home.
Home things:
Eve is teething at the moment. A lower right molar is trying to make an appearance. This drives her a little nutty. She’s was being a right madam & miscreant yesterday; cereal on the floor & hitting Jude to name but 2 offences. Hitting Jude it the one that’s very annoying. She’s also still got a bit of impetigo on her chin but that’s thankfully healing up. It’s meant that Louise can’t take her to playgroup etc though, so they’ve had less distraction that they would usually get. Hopefully it will be deemed cleared up enough for her to go to college today.

Mmm – the weekend’s ‘Agricultural Show’.
Well, last week was pretty wet, but it seemed to be getting better toward the end of the week. The Show was getting ready on Thursday & on Friday the fair set themselves up. Unfortunately there was then a cloudburst on Friday evening – a thunderstorm – a downpour. It was quite impressive really. Jack went from front window to back window to catch the rain pelting (or “hitting” as he puts it) down. Not good for ‘The Show’ though.
We dallied on Saturday morning – there was some football on the telly to watch, but eventually we made our way down to the park to ‘The Show’. People were coming out with shoes & trousers plastered in mud; pushchairs with caked wheels – didn’t look good… Once through the gates you could see the deep furrows the horse trailers & lorries had left over the grassed areas that’re supposed to be the footy pitch… A major annoyance was that as people were reluctant to park their cars on the grass, some fool deemed it OK for them to park on the children’s playground. One suspects the decision maker did not have children of their own. I dislike cars at the best of times, & was not able to just pull back a swing & let it smash into a car because there were actually people sat in some of them… darn.
We went around the paved walkway circling the park (& the show) to survey the prospects of an easy access. Disappointed that the livestock were not here last year. Apparently latent Foot & Mouth fears persist. In a way, it’s just as well as Eve does not like animals really. She was quite scared of all the horses that were around & needed to be carried everywhere. Could not risk putting her down once the decision was made as she would have got muddy feet & thus I would be muddied. We ended up back at the playground & managed to find a little room between the impromptu car park to play. There was even nearly enough room for Eve to have a swing. Shame she had to kick a car while she did it, shame I didn’t let her get her bots muddy & shame some unsporting official asked us to move while another car moved out of the way (further onto the playground…).

Feeling better? Marginally. I conceded to feeling awful yesterday, & went to bed early, in the hope that I was just run down. Had a good nights sleep & …well, I feel better, but not great, by any means.

Jack slept a bit better last night. He woke at 3:00 & 3:30. I think dreaming is disturbing him at the moment, but he’s not specific about it. He certainly would like me to sleep in his bed, but I tell him I’d be too noisy at the moment (I would – coughing & snorting). I think he settled off OK again, but he must have stirred again as when I got up this morning he was sleeping against his bed like he had been sitting on the floor next to it to watch down the corridor; this was what he was doing when I first went to see him at 3:00. Oh, I put Eve back in bed properly then as well, as she looked to be straying to the point where she might fall out of bed. Unlike Jack, her bed is off the floor.

Eve has a spot of Impetigo at the moment, poor girl. She cannot go to playgroup or college. She is mixing with the kids on the street, much to my general concern, but you can’t stop that. She’s started saying to Louise, when she is told that she can’t do something that she will be able to, “when me chin gets better” (accompanied by vigererous head nod). She still uses ‘me’ for ‘I’, but on the whole she’s very acute with her language nowadays. You take such things for granted. She’s full of life is Eve, running, jumping & all that. She does not like animals so much though; anything larger than a medium sized dog or a cat freaks her out a bit. In a way, it was a good thing that there were not hoardes of animals at the Agricultural show this weekend.

I still have the sort of feeling I have in my head when you are 1st woken by the alarm clock – dull fuzzy ache.
I would much rather be getting more sleep. The night before last was a poor night & last night was even worse. I have a cough, -so was tight chested & wheezy, & having to get out of bed regularly for Jack, as the night before. It’s odd – he’s been sleeping so well for the past couple of months, but these last few days he’s been making a fuss in the night, because, when it comes down to it he says he does not want to sleep alone. This is not a habit we wish him to get into, so we are discouraging it, but it’s hard work. Oh & Jude is jolly loud when he wakes up as well.
Heh – back to my selfish immediacy – I am tired. There’s bound to be more I’d like to report about ‘the hols’ but it really feels like I should stop as I’m feeling left behind.
uh oh – typing stop; I’m too much of a dullard this morning. If I could converse rather than type I’m sure the nudge of a conversation would keep momentum, but I type, & my hands fell heavier than they should and